columbia wrote:Or people could just pay off their loans, like they legally agreed to in the first place.

Tuition fees went up 600% since the 80's. I think students should just all walk out and not go to class and force these bastards to lower the prices. It is absurd that some people start their after school life with 100K or 500K in debt. When I went to school in the early 90's, you could have literally had a part time job and pay off your semester's fee right as you went along. It is ridiculous that people are OK with it, as if they were brainwashed into believing in 'personal responsilibity' while being taken from behind with a sledgehammer... literally. This is of course a deeper issue because I think that this is just one symptom of the economic collapse we are seeing, just as healthcare costs and insurance costs, where everyone gets rammed as hard as possible until there is nothing left.

Paul Begala (50) was on Maher tonight and said he only paid $4 a credit.

Sorry to bump this thread but I need a second set of eyes to run these numbers for me. Something isn't jiving with me.

My fiancee's loan from Direct Loans (consolidation loan) was just sold to Sallie Mae. I'm wondering about that. It seems Direct markets to you then sells to Sallie mae. Whatever, the interest rate didnt change. The term and payment seem to have changed though which I think is shady. Nothing earth shattering but still an extra 90-100 a month.

Here was the old term/payment.

$23,800 consolidated at 5.5% interestpayments were $161 a month for 240 months

This loan was sold to sallie mae and split up by subsidized/unsubsidized.

New term:

$23,100 was sold to sallie mae (she made 6 payments or so before it was sold)175 payments @ $182.8560 payments @ $48.09total monthly payment $231

I think I just figured it out lol. I still want to post this though since it took too much thought. the 231 payment will only last for 60 months, and then the other 115 months will be $182.85. Technically since the payment has increased by $70, the total paid will be 34,887 instead of the original $38640

mac5155 wrote:Sorry to bump this thread but I need a second set of eyes to run these numbers for me. Something isn't jiving with me.

My fiancee's loan from Direct Loans (consolidation loan) was just sold to Sallie Mae. I'm wondering about that. It seems Direct markets to you then sells to Sallie mae. Whatever, the interest rate didnt change. The term and payment seem to have changed though which I think is shady. Nothing earth shattering but still an extra 90-100 a month.

Here was the old term/payment.

$23,800 consolidated at 5.5% interestpayments were $161 a month for 240 months

This loan was sold to sallie mae and split up by subsidized/unsubsidized.

New term:

$23,100 was sold to sallie mae (she made 6 payments or so before it was sold)175 payments @ $182.8560 payments @ $48.09total monthly payment $231

I think I just figured it out lol. I still want to post this though since it took too much thought. the 231 payment will only last for 60 months, and then the other 115 months will be $182.85. Technically since the payment has increased by $70, the total paid will be 34,887 instead of the original $38640

(1) Boy am I jealous of her only have "that" much debt.(2) Someone had a problem with Sallie Mae recently. I know there are different repayment terms that you can select for federal loans. I.e. I can pay off in 10 years with the same payment or escalating payments every 2 years. Check that aspect of it.

shafnutz05 wrote:Yeah, I think that's another issue...racking up a $100k loan on a diploma that pretty much anyone could tell you it's near impossible to find any success in the field. I obtained a degree in political science, and quickly realized that it was going to be very difficult for me to get into any kind of political career that could support me. So I sucked it up and got a job in a completely unrelated field, and I'm doing great five years later.

The bill would reward graduates for entering public service professions like teaching and firefighting.

I have a bit of a problem with this portion of the text. I don't think people should be so handsomely rewarded for pursuing a "public service" (read: government) profession. If the true aim of this bill is to "jump start the economy", that doesn't make any sense. I'm assuming it's a nod to the unions, but meh.

All that being said, I am pretty firmly against these kind of "loan forgiveness" bills. It rewards financial irresponsibility, IMO.

So you want kids to get $60K educations to go work public service jobs that are going to pay $40K a year maybe? It seems like some sort of compromise is needed here, either the government hires a bunch of unqualified people to work public sector jobs, or you give people some sort of incentive to accept lower compensation (as it is obvious that cutting the cost of government means paying these workers in the $40K range and cutting their pension and insurance benefits).

I have a compromise; let these people go to the front of the line in joining the military. They have their salary to pay off their debts since they're now getting 3 hots and a cot. The veterans educational benefits they get can be paid toward any remaining loan after their discharge. I t know that many people want "there kids to get public sector jobs that pay maybe 40k a year". One of our biggest problems is having too many people working public sector jobs.

mac5155 wrote:Yep. Sallie mae must have different maximum terms of repayment. I'm sure if I called I could get it changed, but it's ok as thats roughly what we were sending regardless..

Sallie Mae sets terms on each note, not on each account. Each note is eligible for differrent terms based on its date. I think you have it right though; they basically just laddered you on each note with shorter term on the smaller note. Actually could work in your favor, depending on the rates.